The subject matter disclosed herein relates to vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft and, more particularly, to a VTOL aircraft with an exhaust deflector.
A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can fly horizontally and one that can hover, take off, and land vertically. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors. Some VTOL aircraft can operate in other modes as well, such as conventional take-off and landing (CTOL), short take-off and landing (STOL) and short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL). Others, such as some helicopters, can only operate by VTOL, due to the aircraft lacking landing gear that can handle horizontal motion.
For those VTOL aircraft that take off and land as rotorcraft and fly as fixed wing aircraft, engines are often aligned with longitudinal axes of the wings for horizontal (or forward) flight. In rotorcraft mode where the engine is oriented vertically, this configuration restriction places the engine exhaust in close proximity to the ground and may result in thermal impingement of the ground surface and local aircraft structures.